Behavioral synthesis via engineering change

Engineering change (EC) is a technique that enables a designer to rapidly perform minor specification alterations while minimally resynthesizing only small portions of the specification throughout several levels of design abstraction. In this paper, we introduce the first EC-based synthesis technique for coordinated design optimization in multiple steps. The technique has four phases: optimization region identification, feedback formulation, resynthesis in first step, and finally resynthesis in the second design step. To demonstrate the technique, we focus on behavioral synthesis and transformation, scheduling, and register assignment steps. We developed a generic EC-based approach for design optimization during multiple consecutive synthesis steps. Next, we show how one can use EC to enhance coordinated application of transformations and scheduling, and scheduling and register assignment.